First Friend
by NonchalantxFish
Summary: BORDERLANDS 2. An engineer assigned to work on the Bunker and the Angel Chamber befriends the Siren inside. A part of what prompted Angel to betray Handsome Jack. OC main. No shipping intended. A/N: I got bored and wrote this. Thought it'd be nice to explain why Angel is so fixated on the Vault Hunter being her friend.
1. Friend, He Said

"Man, what a job. Who the hell does this kinda shit to their own kid?" he muttered, putting a bit more force into his wrench than usual.

"Hey! Keep your voice down, Pierce." hissed the senior engineer, waving his hand at the junior, "Handsome Jack sees everythin'. And I mean _everything_ **.** "

He couldn't help but roll his eyes. The goggles were good for hiding that; saved him some ass-beatings already. Conversation done, Pierce and his senior engineer went about their business mechanically. Quiet, too. The new, secret Hyperion bots were patrolling - "guarding" was their official purpose, but there's no point to guarding something worthless. Most likely, it really _was_ Handsome Jack keeping tabs on them.

Engineers were dispensable. One wrong move, Pierce and his buddy might be a corpse on the glacier with that fucking CL4P-TP unit. God forbid. But the pay was good, if he survived.

"Oi, Pierce-kid. I'm off to the antechamber. 'parently something 'bout the bioscan is goin' wonky. Idiots needs help."

"Yeah, yeah." he muttered, still shivering at the _thought_ of even his _corpse_ being in the company of that technological nightmare.

Alone in the Angel Chamber with nothing but the Angelic Guards (new bots, all armored and sleek - only the best for the psychotic bastard's little girl) and the sound of his work. Pierce hated the job. Yup. But money . . . so much money, hinging on the gamble that he survived Pandora, that he didn't spend too much on his damn comic book collection, and that he wasn't killed by either bandits or Jack himself.

Risky gamble. He'd taken it anyway. That alone proved he was insane enough to belong on this godforsaken Eridium mine of a planet.

 **Clank clank clank.** What the hell was that? Something in those eridium injectors was rattling about. No slaggy shit running through right then, but it might burst. And then Jack'd have his head.

 **Clank clank clank.** It was annoying, too.

"He does see everything, you know."

 **Clank clank clank.** Had to fix that.

"Um . . . it's a good thing I used my phaseshift to erase all that."

Phaseshift. Something familiar about that. **Clank clank clank.** Damn place. It was so messed up.

"Uh . . . hello?"

He glanced back briefly. Chick with blue tattoos, half-shaved head, all innocent looking. Looking at him. **Clank clank clank.** Back to work, because that sound would be in his nightmares if he didn't fix it. And he had to work; work and work and work and then get off this stupid planet. Hopefully Niko'd take his unfinished comic book collection, because he sure as hell wasn't taking it with him- **Clank clank clank.**

"Uh-"

 **Clank clank clank.**

"AAAAHHHH! I hate that sound, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. Stupid Hyperion, stupid chamber, stupid Jack-"

"Are you going crazy?"

"No, what? Well, maybe - this _is_ Pandora, after all- wait. Who the hell-"

He turned back to the girl with blue tattoos. She was giving him one of those looks. Like 'you're an idiot' or 'wow I can't even believe how stupid you are'. Something along those lines. Pierce didn't really have a lot of experience with the opposite sex. Didn't help that there were no freakin' girls on Pandora, either.

"Hi. You . . . seem a little disturbed." the girl said, looking at Pierce like he was crazy.

He didn't blame her. He blamed the damn-

 **Clank clank clank.**

"GAH! Whoever you are, just gimme a bit, I need to fix this-"

"According to the blueprints, it's in the exterior rings. Your, um, associate didn't secure it to the interior frames correctly." she fired off in one breath.

Pierce felt guilty, later, that he'd subjected a young girl to almost all of the cuss words in the universe. But mostly he felt relieved that the continuous, monotonous **clank** was silenced. In fact, the entire chamber was silent; only a relieved-but-guilty engineer and a curious-but-intimidated Siren.

"You _are_ a Siren, right?" he asked.

She nodded, a little smile on her face. Amused, it looked. "One of six."

"Well, yeah. I figured." Pierce muttered, tossing his toolbox over his shoulder and letting his legs dangle off the walkway.

The Siren slowly approached him and crouched down next to him, thin arms hugging her knees to her chest. She was looking at him curiously, like she was expecting something. He wasn't sure what.

"Uh. Okay. I'm gonna assume you're a hallucination." he said. Wouldn't be the first. Though, it would depress Pierce a bit - hallucinations were in the beginning stages of the skull shivers, and with all the eridium around he wouldn't be that surprised . . .

But she shook her head. "I'm Angel."

It clicked immediately. "Handsome Jack's _kid_? _You're_ Angel?"

She smiled a little. "Yes."

Pierce frowned. "Well. Okay. I'm not gonna ask anymore - I don't wanna know. But hey, thanks. For erasing the shit I said about Hyperion. I probably would've been killed, huh?"

Angel gave him another strange smile. "Maybe. My dad . . . well, he's my dad, but he's ruthless. His only weakness would be me, I suppose. Enough that the security is lax enough for me to sneak into my new room."

Pierce glanced around. Angelic guards were gone - the Siren probably sent them away. But aside from that, it was huge and drafty, defenses hidden underneath sleek design and the injectors half-opened. Her new room? It looked like a prison. Or a cage.

For lab rats.

He shook his head. "Not too cozy, Siren. Not at all."

Angel gave a little laugh at him. "No, it's not. But this place will protect me while I-"

Pierce gave her a pointed look. "I don't wanna know."

She nodded, shutting up. "Yes. Um . . ."

Well, now he felt bad. Handsome Jack's kid or not, Siren or not, Angel looked a bit pitiful. He was building her a cage, commissioned by her pops. Kinda depressing. Plus, he wasn't interested in learning too much - or at least, anything that would probably get him killed. Nope. Life before all else, really.

But still. She was just a girl.

"Yo, Siren. Check this out." he motioned to her, digging back behind him, where he'd crammed some of his comics into his pants. "How many comics d'you think I've got down here?"

She looked at him like he was crazy. He probably was - Pandora and all. "Um. Why do you want me to answer that?"

"Guess." he said, grinning, "C'mon, I'm bored."

Angel smiled quizzically. "Three?"

"BZZT! I've got a grand total of _seventeen_ **!** " he said, piling the frayed pages between them, "You'd be surprised how much I can stuff down in these work pants. And now, we're gonna read."

She frowned. "Those were just down your pants."

"Hey, I keep it clean down there. Don't worry about that." he said, shrugging, "Now, you're gonna read so I got someone to talk about SuperSiren and The Mystic with. You've got free time, obviously."

Angel looked a little surprised. "Why are you-?"

"C'mon, think of it as a favor." he said, pointing at the first issue in all his stained, dog-eared glory, "Read 'em and I'll be your frieeeeennnd . . ."

The Siren blinked at that, and then grinned. "I've always wanted a friend."

"No kidding. Now pick up the comic and read," he ordered, pushing it into her tattooed hand, "friend."


	2. Friend, She Said

"You're pretending to be an A.I.? That's hilarious." Pierce said, flipping through a battle between The Mystic and Gun Heroman.

Angel nodded, not taking her eyes off of the emotional breakdown of SuperSiren in issue no. 14. "Jack believes they'll trust me more that way. And it explains my powers with technology."

"Phaseshift, yeah? Fancy stuff, Angel. Fancy, fancy stuff." he replied, scanning old exposition and backstory panels.

"Not quite. My powers depend almost entirely upon the Echonet."

"Well, I mean, you're dad's _Handsome Jack_. He's got access to shit. You'll be fine- WHOA, I forgot about this part! The Mystic and SuperSiren-"

"Wait!" Angel shouted in a panic, "Don't, don't spoil anything! They haven't even met yet in this book-"

Pierce grinned. "Well, SuperSiren awakens her latent second ability upon Gun Heroman, who's attacking-"

Angel's tattoos started glowing white, and her wings started shimmering into existence. She glared at Pierce. "NO. SPOILERS." One of the defense lasers fired a small, quick shot very near Pierce's hand.

He gulped. "Hey! No magicky-stuff when it's comic-time! These are delicate things here, they are."

She smirked, tattoos dimming to blue and wings fading away. "You shouldn't challenge a Siren, friend."

Pierce rolled his eyes. "Feh. I'm gonna work. You have fun watching SuperSiren descend into insanity."

"Hey! I said no spoilers!"

But he was suspended in air with the equipment skeleton covering him, then hanging off one of the eridium injectors, continuing the construction. There were only two engineers allowed inside Angel's Chamber, and that was Pierce and Mick - Handsome Jack's orders. Everyone else was outside, with the bots. If it wasn't like that, Angel'd already be in her new "room".

Speaking of which, he still couldn't figure out how Angel snuck around here. He didn't even know where she was normally staying, to be close enough for her to be able to visit every lunch break. There was a bandit clan outside on the front door, after all.

He knew that she'd snuck from God-knows-where to see her new prison. He thought it might've been because there were no cameras or Echo devices in here; she couldn't see it properly without that stuff. Why she wanted to spend more time in her prison than necessary, that was the real mystery.

But he wouldn't ask. Bad to get involved in Handsome Jack's business. Usually, it meant a very painful death. Strangulation, probably.

 **Click click click.** The sound of his own tools working, monotonous and rhythmic, annoyed him. Thank whatever was out there that Angel's page turning disrupted the **click click click.** Pierce was going crazy being trapped in here, he supposed.

 _ **But Angel will be in here for a lot longer than I've been.**_ he thought darkly.

Serious, who the hell did this to their kid?

Pierce looked over the damn blueprints enough times to know that Angel was gonna get jacked up on eridium. The injectors were huge, and so was Hyperion's supply. Eridium and Sirens, who knew they'd be related, but here it was. And there were no windows or anything in here. Nothing interesting at all. What the hell would Angel do all day?

Sure, she had the Echonet, but girls weren't supposed to grow up in glass chambers with T.V.'s and radios being their windows. He didn't think so, anyways.

"It will be lonely in here, I suppose." Angel said, as if she was reading his mind - Sirens could do that, right?

Pierce glanced back from his work. "And you're just gonna walk in here, and never leave. You're gonna let yourself get trapped in this damn room with just a word from Handsome Jack."

Angel smiled a little, sadly. "He's my father. I think . . . he just wants to protect me."

"These eridium injectors ain't gonna protect you." he said, tapping the pipes with his knuckles.

"My father went through a lot because I am a Siren. I . . . I do not remember the exact details, but it's my fault that my mother is gone." Angel explained quietly, carefully.

Pierce was not impressed. "A Siren's a lot of work already, then a kid-Siren? Stuff'll happen. No excuse, Angel."

She glared at Pierce. "I thought you didn't want to ask questions."

He shrugged, turning back to his work. "I'm not asking questions, am I? You're just giving me answers."

A few flutters of paper comic pages, the **click click click** of Pierce's work. Outside, something crashed and someone swore. There were faint echoes of the Hyperion bots talking in their mechanical, stiff voices. Quiet in the Chamber, for the most part.

Then Pierce sighed, and jumped from the pipe to the bridge again; his engineer gear landed him softly and he plopped down next to Angel. She looked up inquisitively. He gave her shoulder a pat.

"It won't be _that_ lonely in here. Hyperion'll probably fire me after this, with it being all secret and stuff. I know my way 'round, though. I can come visit. Bring the nest issues." he rambled.

Angel's eyes brightened, widening, filled with disbelief. "You said you wanted to retire on the other end of the galaxy."

Pierce shrugged. "Here, there, what's it matter where I go after I'm done here? Besides, a certain Siren brat keeps telling me I'm crazy, and all the crazies are on Pandora."

She beamed. "Crazy belongs with crazy, is it?"

"Sure 'nuff- Oh hey, you're at SuperSiren's downward spiral arc- Anyways, I don't have much else to do or any place else to go. Might as well keep my friend company."

"Friend . . ."

"What?"

The Siren chuckled softly. "It's just like the comics. SuperSiren and The Mystic are friends like that. They never leave each other behind."

Pierce looked over Angel's shoulder, at the colorful artwork. "Hmmmyeah. Oh hey, if you're SuperSiren - for obvious reasons, of course - then am I The Mystic?"

"Um. Yes, why not?"

He laughed, and picked up issue no. 15. "Then I'll be able to teleport and stuff. It'd be useful if I really could, it's gonna be a pain to sneak in here every other day. The place is shut tight, but I've got my shortcuts . . ."

"You're really going to do it, aren't you?"

"Eh?"

"Stay on Pandora to keep me company." she said faintly. Apparently she still couldn't understand that Pierce was willing to stay on a planet populated by insane bandits for her. He rather didn't believe it himself.

But well, after getting through issues no. 1 to no. 14, they were friends. Maybe the comic thing was just to break the ice at first, but they liked talking about it. They liked being a weird pair of buddies like that. A teenage Siren daughter of Handsome Jack and the adult engineer that liked comics too much. Damn, if this was normal on Pandora, the place really _was_ a madhouse.

He gave her a pat on the head. "Looks like, Angel. Ya better get used to ol' Pierce here."

She smiled again. "Thank you, friend."


	3. Friend, They Agreed

He didn't get paid enough for this crap.

The Chamber was done. Eridium injectors were working and everything. Him and the team reported to Handsome Jack a while ago - he was apparently gonna talk to them personally. An either very good or bad sign. The BNK-3R was all set to go, the bioscan was locked to Jack, and they'd just finished up the death wall. Only Hyperion bots now.

"Maybe we're getting bonuses." said Niko hopefully, "Also, Pierce, where's your comic collection? I thought I was getting it when you leave!"

Pierce raised a brow at the kid. "Someone's borrowing it. Sorry, Niko, you're outta luck."

The kid grinned. "Good thing I've almost finished my own, then."

Their senior worker, Mick, knocked their helmeted heads together from behind and then clapped their shoulders. "We've finished, boys! Nothing's getting to the Angel Chamber, not with _our_ work."

"Howzabout a drink after this? Celebrate a good job and a leaving Pierce!"

"Hear, hear!"

"C'mon, guys, let's go see what the Big Boss wants."

"To congratulate us?"

"Nah, maybe to make us sign gag notices or something."

"Move it, move it, the guy's waiting!"

"First time I'll see the Chamber, let's go!"

The engineer team shuffled to Angel's Chamber. The bioscan was already letting them through; Handsome Jack himself was gonna talk to them. Maybe he had a problem with one of the eridium injectors. It was probably doing that damn **clank clank clank** shit again, and Pierce would have to fix it. What a pain. But hey, only the best for his little girl.

 ** _Friend_** **.** he remembered her fondly like that.

Boop. There was something in his paints . . . issue no. 16? Angel was missing the 16th issue? That'd piss her off - she'd never read again, either. She liked being all orderly and stuff. He'd have to drop that off, next time he visited her. Which was likely tomorrow morning.

All his thinking and comic-discovering brought Pierce to lag behind the cluster of coworkers. He was last through the Chamber doors, and was greeted with the floor smacking his face.

 _ **Huh?**_

He'd tripped and slammed his face into the floor. Pierce turned to look at what he tripped over, and saw the corpses of his coworkers. Niko was staring at him dead in the eyes, with ironically his eyes all dead. 'Cuz he was dead. They were all goddamn dead.

 _ **What the hell?**_

"Pierce!"

Pierce shot up, looking around. There were the eridium injectors, spewing the purple slag into Angel. She was flying, three weird things floating around her and glowing purple. There was a shield separating her from going to him, and he knew she was trying because she was slamming her shoulder into it. And in front of her was Handsome Jack himself, two Angelic Guards flanking him and a Hyperion pistol in his hand.

"Oh, _you're_ the dumbass engineer that's been hanging around my daughter." he said, reloading his gun, "I kinda hoped you'd be in that pile of corpses there, but, ah well, that leaves me the pleasure of killing you myself."

"Dad!" Angel screamed, "Don't hurt him! He's my friend! Pierce is my friend!"

Handsome Jack turned to Angel, scolding her: "Now, Angel. We don't play with dirty bandits, didn't I tell you? Your _friend_ here wanted to stay on Pandora, and that makes him a bandit. We kill bandits, remember?"

She was slamming on the shield, panicking. Pierce was standing, dumbfounded. His friends were all dead. And it was their boss that did it . . . not a rogue bot, not a psycho bandit, but Handsome Jack himself. No, from the wounds, it was the Angelic Guards. Mick and Niko helped design those bots.

He'd helped, too.

This was all very surreal. But he knew that he was in danger, so he pulled his Hyperion submachine gun from where it was always tucked away in his engineer tech. He was about to start spraying in Jack's general direction when there was a sudden punch in his gut, and something warm spreading all over his stomach.

Blood, probably. Looks like Hyperion's leader was too quick.

Pierce fell to his knees and heard Angel screech something horrible.

"Hey, hey, hey! Language!" he heard Jack say faintly.

 **Drip drip drip.** That was fucking annoying. Blood making that sound, over and over. Pierce hated that kinda stuff.

Being shot hurt. Being shot by his boss hurt especially. But it also sucked that his best friend was screaming her lungs out because he'd been shot. Also, there was blood all over issue no. 16. Angel would never be able to read it like that.

 **Drip drip drip.**

"You wanna know something? Even if you hadn't started corrupting my daughter, I woulda killed you!" Handsome Jack laughed, stepping closer to a dying Pierce, "Like the bots, you guys're dispensable. And you knew too much, so, duh, I'd off you. Nice that you made it personal, though - I got to pull the trigger myself."

Pierce rummaged through his stuff, pulling out the comic. Looks like only a little corner was bloody. **Drip drip drip.** Angel would be able to read it like that. She'd have nothing else to do without her friend coming over. And she had 17 issues; she'd go crazy having the 17th but not the 16th. Didn't want her to go crazy - her fucking dad was crazy enough for the both of them.

 **Drip drip drip.**

"Angel." he croaked out.

His teeth must've been a bloody mess, but he grinned anyways. She stopped her screaming and looked at him, horrified. **Drip drip drip.** Jack seemed to be watching, like the bots. Guess an engineer's last words were that interesting? Or maybe as Angel's only friend, his last words were interesting. **Drip drip drip.** Whatever.

"Say goodbye, dumbass." Jack said gleefully.

 **Drip drip drip.**

He _was_ gonna say 'bye', but the fact that Jack told him to made him want to say something else. "See you soon." he said. If he slept a little bit, maybe when he woke up he'd go visit Angel, like he planned. They'd talk comics. Maybe he'd introduce her to some other stories.

Yeah, that'd be good.

 _ **Oh, lookit that. The sound stopped. Guess I don't have that much blood left.**_

Pandora wasn't so bad a place, he guessed.

* * *

The bodies were cleared away, Pierce's, too. Angel was alone in her chambers, with a bloody 16th issue in her hands and a 'see you soon' in her head. The only things her only friend left to her.

"I'm just a slave to my father, aren't I?" she said emptily.

Protection? How could the murder of her only friend count as protection? How could trapping her and getting her addicted to eridium count as protection? Familial love? Jack never saw her face to face - the massacre of the engineers was the first time she'd seen her _**father**_ in years. Jack didn't even touch her; hug her or anything. Pat her shoulder or her head. He didn't even stay.

Pierce was going to stay. He was going to lend her books and talk about SuperSiren and The Mystic. Because he was her friend, because he was more of a father or brother to her than her own blood.

The eridium surged in her blood suddenly. She twitched, shifting and watching the pieces of the Vault Key shift with her. Angel knew she was dependent on the stuff already. And she knew the Key was almost charged.

"See you soon." she muttered, "Sooner than you'd think, Pierce."

 **Phaseshift.**

She was inside the Echonet again. She blinked, sensing them. Seeing them.

". . . I'll explain everything soon, but know this - you're alive for a reason, and I . . . am here to help you." she sighed.


End file.
